8 reasons Pluto should totally have planet status (pictures) Scientists have demoted it to a dwarf. As telescopes, particularly in on satellites, improved, more objects were discovered which caused a problem that they were quite small and some astronomers … process, a new category of solar system object, the "dwarf planet" was created. Pluto is no longer classified as a planet. Pluto is now classified as a dwarf planet. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) downgraded the status of Pluto to that of a dwarf planet because it did not meet the three criteria the IAU uses to define a full-sized planet. However, its nearest neighbors are the gaseous Jovian planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune).For this reason, many scientists believe that Pluto originated elsewhere in space and got caught in the sun's gravity.

International Astronomical Union to redefine what constitutes a planet. In the.

because the definition of a planet has changed. Some of the objects are nearly as big as … In 2006, the IAU voted to remove Pluto from the list of planets in the Solar System. Although originally classified as a planet, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006, a controversial decision by the IAU Committee. Pluto's Small Size. Research has shown that Pluto is an extremely icy planet, colder even than Antarctica. The prototype dwarf planet is Pluto. and Pluto now falls into that group … previously unknown objects in the Kuiper belt that are similar to Pluto forced the. The reclassification was triggered by the discovery of many additional object (the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt) out beyond the orbit of Neptune. The nerve! Pluto was discovered by the astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in February 1930. It was given the status of the ninth planet of the solar system. Some astronomers once theorized … Why Pluto is no longer a planet. The main difference between a planet and a dwarf planet has to do with the requirement that a planet clear out the material in and near its orbit. Pluto, a celestial body orbiting the Sun near the far edges of the Solar System, was originally classified as a planet. Essentially Pluto meets all the criteria except one—it “has not cleared its neighboring region of other objects.” Pluto was downgraded from planet to dwarf planet because the definition of a planet was changed. Planets do this, dwarf planets do not.

; It's dense and rocky, like the terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars). The recent discovery of many .

Instead, Pluto, and other large objects would be classified as Dwarf Planets.

As such, Pluto is no longer considered to be the 9th planet of our solar system. A dwarf planet is a planetary-mass object that does not dominate its region of space (as a true or classical planet does) and is not a satellite.That is, it is in direct orbit of the Sun and is massive enough to be plastic – for its gravity to maintain it in a hydrostatically equilibrious shape (usually a spheroid) – but has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit of other material.

It's smaller than any other planet -- even smaller than Earth's moon.